The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer Klaus Schwab.
Klaus Martin Schwab is a German mechanical engineer, economist, and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has acted as the WEF's chairman since founding the organisation in 1971. In May 2024, WEF announced that Schwab will move from his role as Executive Chairman to chairman of the Board of Trustees by January 2025. No successor has been named.
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of organizations, which vary in size, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices. Social entrepreneurs, however, are either non-profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Therefore, they use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.
Paul Rice is the Founder & CEO of Fair Trade USA, the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in North America. Since launching Fair Trade USA in 1998, Rice has brought Fair Trade into the mainstream and built a movement to expand its impact. He has challenged and collaborated with hundreds of companies to rework their global supply chains to obtain high-quality products that support community development and environmental protection.
Linda Rottenberg is an American businesswoman and author. She is the author of Crazy Is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags. She is the CEO and Co-founder of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that encourages the power of entrepreneurship.
Chris Underhill is an English social entrepreneur.
Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL) is a non-profit organization. The organization was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Swiss government. It is run by the World Economic Forum.
Endeavor is an organization headquartered in New York City which supports entrepreneurs with potential for economic and social impact in their regions. The organization provides the entrepreneurs in its network with services that assist them in growing ventures, creating jobs, transforming economies, and supporting future generations of entrepreneurs.
Kamal Quadir is a Bangladeshi American entrepreneur and artist best known for introducing e-commerce in Bangladesh by founding CellBazaar, an electronic marketplace which, after reaching 4 million users, was acquired by Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor in 2010. CellBazaar later was rebranded as ekhanei.com. He is the brother of Iqbal Quadir, who is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in creating prosperity in low-income countries.
Pamela Hartigan was the Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She was the founding partner of Volans Ventures, and served as a director of the global non-profit social enterprise Cambia from 2009 until her death.
Chetna Gala Sinha is an Indian social entrepreneur working to empower women in areas of rural India by teaching entrepreneurial skills, access to land and means of production.
Julie Marie Meyer is a businesswoman based in the United Kingdom.
Andreas Heinecke is a social entrepreneur and the creator of Dialogue in the Dark. He is the first Ashoka Fellow for Western Europe and a Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Global Fellow. He is also the founder of Dialogue Social Enterprise and an honorary professor and Chair of Social Business at the EBS University of Business and Law, Wiesbaden, Germany.
Renat Heuberger is the co-founder and Senior Adviser of South Pole, a carbon finance consultancy. He was CEO until resigning on 10 November, 2023. He has been engaged as a social entrepreneur in the fields of sustainability, climate change and renewable energies since 1999.
Yunus Social Business (YSB) is a non-profit organisation with an impact-investing arm, Yunus Funds, and a corporate social-innovation consulting arm, Yunus Corporate Innovation. Both business units are based on furthering the concept of social business.
Silverius Oscar Unggul is an Indonesian environmental activist. He is known for his work in improving natural resource management in Indonesia's regional economies. He founded the organization JAUH to preserve of Indonesian rainforests by helping villages develop sustainable timber economies.
Njideka Françoise Harry is a World Economic Forum Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Fellow.
Neelam Pol is an entrepreneur and founder of Khel Planet Foundation. She is a Harvard University alumna and lives in Mumbai.
The Great Reset Initiative is an economic recovery plan drawn up by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was launched in June 2020, and a video featuring the then-Prince of Wales Charles was released to mark its launch. The initiative's stated aim is to facilitate rebuilding from the global COVID-19 crisis in a way that prioritizes sustainable development.
Li Xia is an entrepreneur recognized by the Schwab Foundation as a social innovator for the foundation of Shenzhen Power Solutions a company founded in 2004 dedicated to “Improve the global Off-Grid population’s life quality”
